Spiritual Blindness

JOHN 9:10 I once was blind, but now I see.......10"How then were your eyes opened?" they demanded.11He replied, "The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see." 12"Where is this man?" they asked him. "I don’t know," he said.13They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. 14Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath. 15Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. "He put mud on my eyes," the man replied, "and I washed, and now I see." The skip on to vs 24A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. "Give glory to God," they said. "We know this man is a sinner." 25He replied, "Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!"

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound.....especially for this man in JOHN 9.....Blind from birth and now his eyes were opened! If you’ll look there in vs 32 you’ll see that that had NEVER happened before! The Pharisees could not believe that one born blind was now able to see simply because Jesus touched him.

I want to talk to you this morning about how you were made to see. Oh, I don’t mean that you were born into physical blindness...I’m talking about spiritual blindness....and we were ALL born into that. Ever since Adam and Eve brought sin into this world, everyone who has ever been born was born into sin. That is the reason that it is necessary to be "born-again". You can say it like this; if you have been born twice, you will only die once...if you have been born only once, you will surely die twice...the second death of eternal judgement.

As a matter of fact, that’s what the Pharisees told this man, isn’t it? In vs 34 they said "You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!" And they threw him out. And you and I also were "steeped in sin" at birth. Let’s read on and see what happened to this man....vs 35Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" 6"Who is he, sir?" the man asked. "Tell me so that I may believe in him." 37Jesus said, "You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you." 38Then the man said, "Lord, I believe," and he worshiped him.

I want you to notice that this man confessed with his mouth that he believed; then he worshipped him, so we can safely say that he believed in his heart...it would be pretty hard to worship something you don’t believe in! But what I want to talk about today is how YOUR eyes have been opened....when you believed in Jesus.....even though we were all born into sin, we found Him and one touch from Him and now we see...(I once was lost, but now I’m found....was blind but now I see....)

Now this man, being blind from birth had a lot to overcome, didn’t he? I’m sure he fumbled and stumbled around, trying to live in this world. I’m pretty sure that is difficult for someone that can’t see even today, muchless back then. Listen, if you are like me, before you found Christ everything was difficult. I was just groping around, trying to find my way in a world that really could care less about MY needs. Praise God, I finally found Him...and He touched me, and opened my eyes....and I’m so glad He did!

Now I go into every situation with my eyes wide open....remember, Jesus doesn’t take away your ability to see clearly...but sometimes, christians, WE close our eyes and don’t WANT to see, don’t we? And that’s what we’re going to "look" at today...self inflicted spiritual blindness.

I used to work with an older man that I considered pretty wise. I would say "look, can’t you see this?" and he would always say "I see more than I care to already!" In other words, he didn’t really care to see things as they really are, just wanted to see things as he wanted them to be. It still didn’t change the truth, though....even if we shut our eyes tight and pretend that we can’t see, the truth will always be the truth!

You who have been enlightened are responsible to see. That sounds like it doesn’t make sense, but there are a lot of christians who don’t really WANT to see.Let’s finish this text...vs 39Jesus said, "For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind." 40Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, "What? Are we blind too?"41Jesus said, "If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.